Midnight Feature: Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

This week we are entering true Midnight Culture territory. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970), directed by Russ Meyer is a satirical, musical melodrama inspired by (but absolutely not a sequel to) Valley of the Dolls. It charts the rise of girl group, The Kelly Affair, from small town success to Hollywood stardom. I first watched this film when I was seventeen or eighteen and was obsessed with the campy script, the glamorous 60’s aesthetic and the idea that there was so much life and freedom out there ready to be explored. The film is a trip, cutting so quickly between shots that no matter how many times you watch it there is always something new to see, cementing the film’s cult status and re-watchability.

The film opens with a dramatic flash forward to a house in the Hollywood hills, we then cut to the battle cry of The Kelly Affair’s song ‘Find It’. They are in a school gym and the lead singer’s boyfriend, Harris, is spinning a colour wheel and nodding enthusiastically throughout the performance (something we will see him do many times in the course of the film). The band finish their set before heading to their van to smoke some grass (the 60’s technical term) and unwind after their performance. Kelly, the lead singer, hogs the joint and then kicks her bandmates out of the van so that she and Harris can have sex, thus setting the pecking order for the whole film.

A stylised debate on L.A. follows and we see the group journey across the country; a map, superimposed over their smiling, singing faces. The first fifteen minutes of the film sets the odd tone that runs throughout. It is unclear whether the actors are performing in earnest or if they are sending themselves up in these heightened, archetypal roles and moments. Rumour has it Meyer’s wouldn’t tell the actors whether they were playing a scene straight or for laughs which explains some of the interesting delivery choices.

*Side note: I always find Harris calling Kelly’s rich Aunt Susan, ‘bitch Aunt Susan’ in this bit a little harsh and very out of character considering he has never met the woman and he holds strong opinions on pretty much nothing else throughout the film, not even his own paralysis.

Upon arrival in L.A The Kelly Affair, made up of wide-eyed Kelly MacNamara (Dolly Read), sensitive bassist Casey Anderson (Cynthia Myers) and naive drummer Petronella Danforth (Marcia McBroom) meet a host of ‘Hollywood types’. They visit good old, rich Aunt Susan (Phyllis Davis) at her studio which feels like a Meyer’s riff on Studio 54. Susan greets these total strangers like they are old friends and instantly hands over a third of her family inheritance to Kelly, who she has known for maybe three hours. At a party they meet the ‘teen tycoon of rock’ and the band’s eventual manager, Ronnie ‘Z-Man’ Barzell (John LaZar), and scene-stealing porn star, Ashley St.Ives (Edy Williams), who spends the whole film prowling around with no shoes on, just chains that look like sandal straps.

The film follows a typical ‘coming to Hollywood’ plot involving the inheritance and a shady lawyer to add some jeopardy, but really we’re here for the parties and the pills. In fact it is the pills that shift the film into it’s final gear as we veer into a drug-fuelled murderous rampage at a costume party in the Hollywood hills. This finale was added to the film last minute as a direct response to the murder of Sharon Tate, who starred in the original Valley of the Dolls, and it takes on a surreal quality which feels like quite a triumph in a film that already feels like one continuous 60’s fever dream. It is also instantly quotable with lines like:

• ‘This is my happening and it freaks me out!’ (Z-Man)
• ‘There’s juice freaks and pill freaks, and then everybody’s a freak!’ (Casey)
• ‘In a scene like this you get a contact-high.’ (Kelly)
• Everything that comes out of Ashely St.Ives mouth but the most iconic is probably ‘There’s nothing like a Rolls, not even a BENTLEY! BENTLEY!’

There are multiple romantic entanglements to highlight the women losing themselves on their way to the top, and these entanglements also give the film the Russ Meyers’ skin-flick flavour with copious shots of half-naked men and women romping in barns, circular beds and most iconically; a Rolls Royce.

When I first watched the film besides the glamour, campy script and big queer vibes, it was the music that kept me coming back. From the pumping rock numbers like ‘Find It’ to the pensive ‘In the Long Run’, like music videos, I wanted to hear the music and watch the sequences again and again. The whole album is on Spotify and film director and cult-camp hero John Waters discusses the music in the film superbly.

A literal midnight movie, I highly recommend saving this one for the wee hours, a potent picture of the time, the chaos just does not hit right at four in the afternoon. It is not the easiest film to find online, but you can watch clips on YouTube including the original trailer and the DVD is available to buy on Amazon.

MIDNIGHT CULTURE EASTER EGG: Look out for the Beyond the Valley of the Dolls poster in Magenta and Columbia’s bedroom next time you watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show!